Getting Rid Of Malware Is Easier Said Than Done
Last week my wife opened up an email from one of her girlfriends and clicked on the file that was attached. She thought it was a harmless message that came from one of her best friends…but in fact it was a time bomb loaded with malware that messed up her computer until last night.
Apparently her girlfriend’s PC got infected with something that then sent a malicious file to everyone in her address book and I was forced to spend the better part of a week cleaning up the mess. And I know from experience that getting rid of malware is no laughing matter.
Malware can take many forms…everything from keylogger programs that track what keys you type in an attempt to crack passwords to spyware bots that create all sorts of popup advertising.
My better half’s PC was infected with some kind of trojan that caused advertising popups informing her she was infected and that she needed to download a file to clean her machine. God knows what would have happened if she actually downloaded it! It was bad enough though as the popups became so intense they would lock up the machine and make it unuseable.
I tried running every scan and fix I could think of but I’m no expert at getting rid of malware. So I have to give a quick shout out to the folks at Security Forums for helping me clean up the mess. These are good people that devote time to helping people like you and me get rid of malware for good.
If your PC is running slow, has lots of popups, or shows other signs of malware infection I strongly suggest you visit their forum and ask for help. Just be sure to only take advice from the moderators…listening to anyone else may just get you into even deeper trouble.
Thanks for the forum link buddy, bookmarked for sure.
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Hey Mike,
I got the Vundo virus about a month ago. It does the popup thing too. I think I got it just by visiting some random website, and it got by my AVG program. Anyway, after a very frustrating day, I read somewhere to get the free program at malwarebytes.org. All I can say is it ROCKS! It not only cleaned up Vundo (AVG couldn’t) but found some other stuff too. I can’t say enough good about it. I’d try it out if you haven’t. I’m going to run a scan with it once a month now. ~ Steve Booth
This is great news. The more we are active online, the higher chance of getting attacked. Sites like this will become very useful in critical situation. Glad you have overcome yours.
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@Dennis, no problem…I hope you never need to use it.
@Steve, thanks for the tip. Its amazing how snart these things are that they can get around the defenses we think are protecting us.
@Mike I got hit with the Vundo virus. I threw my comp out and got a Mac.
Getting Malware definitely sucks. I tend to go by this one rule for myself: never open any attachments unless I asked the person if they sent me it if it’s alright. If I’m uncertain, I’ll just load up linux and download it then.
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I just had to start from scratch on my friends computer. She lost lots of corrupt photos.
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I had a shopping advert that would pop up everytime i accessed the internet, it took me months to figure out a way to get rid of it,
Jason
I especially love the ones that infect your computer..you do a search for removal and you find more malware that promises to get rid of your old malware.
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That’s exactly what it was Leo. Continuous popups warning that we had to download “malware removers” to clean our computer, but if we did I’m sure it would have done even more damage.
If you are web geek than it’s possible otherwise – not. I can’t imagine my mother doesn’t do stupid things with email attachments.
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